...Human beings have always been intrigued with gold; dating back to the earliest civilizations and even in today's present world. Gold, in early America, was hard to come by. Most often it had to be imported from eastern countries, which of course wasn’t cheap. American needed to discover native gold; not only to save costs but also to reap the rewards that came with that find and in 1848 that dream became a reality. “James Marshall’s discovery of gold at Coloma turned out to be a seminal event in history, one of those rare moments that divide human existence into before and after” (Brands 23), the author’s message is clear from the very first page, however Brands takes an interesting approach to describe the events of the infamous gold rush....
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...that's out of the way, we'll visit the country's central bank to find out some of their secrets. In this section, we will explore the powerful monetary policy tools central banks employ to control the country's economy. Hopefully, we'll stumble into the room where they keep their printing plates and we can sneak out the back door and sell it on the black market. We're kidding - we're here to teach you how to trade forex the legal way. After that, we'll discuss the important characteristics that differentiate that country's local currency from all the rest, as well as hard-hitting economic indicators for that country. To keep the trip interesting, we'll be dishing some trivia every now and trading tactics that will prove useful later on when you go off on your pip-catching adventure! And as we promised, this very exclusive field trip is covered by your scholarship. No need for travel visas and no need to buy a travel fanny. Although if you're paranoid like Huck, then go right ahead. Pack light, cause all you'll need is your hunger for more learning. If you need a change of clothes, don't worry, you can borrow one of Cyclopip's robes. Are you ready? Let's get this show on the road! United States of America The United States of America is comprised of 50 states and a federal district. Majority of the country could be found in North America, but the United...
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...Chapter 1 3. How do you think the principle of uniformitarianism accounts for occasional catastrophic events such as meteorite impacts, huge volcanic eruptions or great earthquakes? Uniformitarianism is a scientific clarification on how the rocks, continents and mountains in the planet are created. The material process that occurs on earth has not changed; although the objective conditions have changed radically the principle of uniformitarianism accounts for the outcome of the catastrophe or natural calamity. 4. In this chapter we have suggested that Earth is a close approximation of a natural closed system, and we have hinted at some of the ways that living in a closed system effects each of us. Can you think of some other ways? Mainly a closed system is a system which is isolated from a larger system or environment. Closed systems, are detained to be isolated from their environment. The effect that changes in a reservoir, like CO2 levels have a close system effect on us. 5. In what ways do geologic process affect your daily life? There are several ways that Geologic Processes affect our lives. By description a geologic process is a normal way of modifying the face of the Earth. With this significance, the processes such as withering, desertification, stratification, soil erosion,and alluvion. These processes can sometimes take form in natural disasters such as Tsunami and Earthquake. It is then obvious that changes in the face of the...
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...How did the Global Financial Crisis impact Central Banks in terms of gold purchasers? Introduction What had started in the US transmitted itself around the globe causing major uncertainly and panic, the Financial Crisis, which began in mid-2007, was the first major recession of its kind since the Great Depression of the 1930’s. Most of the developed and developing economies of the world felt the full force of it, causing major declines in financial assets, both traditional ones such as equities and newly-developed ones such as mortgage-backed securities. For two decades prior to the Global Financial Crisis, central banks around the world were net sellers of gold, however, since then, the central banks have begun to buy gold. In a video entitled Gold and silver game changer, Michael Maloney uses the 2008 and 2009 CPM Gold yearbooks to illustrate the “the biggest shift in the bull market since the 70’s”, where in 2009, central banks were expected to sell some 4 million ounces of gold; instead, when the 2009 real numbers came in, they had purchased 15 million ounces. This shift in purchasers has come about due to the distrust central banks place on the US dollar, the major currency in the world and the metal’s ability to act as a ‘safe haven’ in times of economic volatility. Golds distinctive properties and its distinction to fiat currencies make it an attractive investment for anyone’s reserve portfolio, especially during times of economic downturn. Table 1 CPM 2010 Gold yearbook ...
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...French Accent - How to Turn Customer Satisfaction into Profits and Growth by Vincent Grimaldi de Puget January 13, 2003 There are reasons to believe that the cause of the backlash against capitalism-as-we-know-it is deeper than the robber baron scandals that have occupied the front pages in recent months. There is growing evidence that we are witnessing a shift away from blind consumerism, and marketers can do something to smooth the transition. The bottom-line pressure of always delivering more earnings – more than the previous quarter and year – can lead to misallocation of resources in the long term. Seeking to grow is fundamentally a good objective if the underlying economics can support it -- meaning productivity improvements and technological breakthroughs -- and if the expectations of customers, as human beings, keep being satisfied. Unfortunately, it is not always the case. In some markets, such as the US and the UK, the pharmacy, restaurant, and video store businesses, for instance, have largely consolidated from mom-and-pop shops to large standardized chains. Economically, consolidation seems to make sense since it initially brought customers a broader choice at lower prices thanks to economies of scale; and sometimes a predictably good customer experience, e.g., McDonald's and Burger King, Barnes & Noble and Borders, and Starbucks. Too often, however, consolidation meant that unmotivated, low-wage workers replaced devoted shop-owners; ignorance replaced knowledge...
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...GOLD STANDARD The gold standard was a commitment by participating countries to fix the prices of their domestic currencies in terms of a specified amount of gold. National money and other forms of money (bank deposits and notes) were freely converted into gold at the fixed price. England adopted a de facto gold standard in 1717 after the master of the mint, Sir Isaac Newton, overvalued the guinea in terms of silver, and formally adopted the gold standard in 1819. The United States, though formally on a bimetallic (gold and silver) standard, switched to gold de facto in 1834 and de jure in 1900 when Congress passed the Gold Standard Act. In 1834, the United States fixed the price of gold at $20.67 per ounce, where it remained until 1933. Other major countries joined the gold standard in the 1870s. The period from 1880 to 1914 is known as the classical gold standard. During that time, the majority of countries adhered (in varying degrees) to gold. It was also a period of unprecedented economic growth with relatively free trade in goods, labor, and capital. The gold standard broke down during World War I, as major belligerents resorted to inflationary finance, and was briefly reinstated from 1925 to 1931 as the Gold Exchange Standard. Under this standard, countries could hold gold or dollars or pounds as reserves, except for the United States and the United Kingdom, which held reserves only in gold. This version broke down in 1931 following Britain’s departure from gold in the...
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...The Globalization of International Financial Markets: What Can History Teach Us?* Michael D. Bordo Rutgers University and NBER Paper prepared for the conference “International Financial Markets: The Challenge of Globalization.” March 31, 2000. Texas A and M University, College Station Texas. * For valuable research assistance, I thank Antu Murshid. 1. Introduction Globalization has become the buzz word of the new millennium. It is viewed as the cause of many of the world’s problems as well as a panacea. The debate over globalization is manifest both in public demonstrations against the WTO in Seattle in the Fall of 1999 and the IMF and World Bank earlier. It also has led to a spate of scholarly and not so scholarly books on the subject.1 Until three years ago the consensus view among economists on the issue of the international integration of financial markets was very positive. The benefits of open capital markets stressed include: optimal international resource allocation; intertemporal optimization; international portfolio diversification and discipline on policy makers.2. However, the recent spate of crises in Latin America and Asia has led some to argue that the costs of complete liberalization of financial markets for emerging countries may outweigh the benefits.3 The paper focuses on the globalization of financial markets from the historical perspective of the past 120 years. In Section 2, I summarize the empirical evidence on the international integration of financial...
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...to try his first swim meet, it was the moment he made his first decision, among many others, which he would make to achieve eight gold medals years later. "At the age of eleven, his mother took him to the see Bob Bowman, his future coach. Bob laid his eyes on Phelps and predicted Michael Phelps would be an Olympic swimmer by 2000. The decision to join a swim club with Bob Bowman was an easy one. At that time he was engaged in three more sports that he had to give up in order to be a swimmer. At twelve years old he was already winning every event, until one day when he had his first loss. Phelps was extremely upset and made the bad decision of throwing his goggles down. Bob Bowman advised him about his unsportsmanlike behavior. "It's when your body is not in the best situation, your mind is not in the best situation and things are against you those are the times that really count and really matter you overcome and rise to the occasion."" (Schaller 55) Two years later he swam in the U.S. National Championship, where he placed last in the 200-meter butterfly. Very disappointed, he made the decision to practice harder with more focus on his mental ability. The following year, the little boy from Baltimore surprised the nation with his performance in the 200-meter Butterfly, when he qualified for the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sidney, Australia. "At 15, Michael became the youngest swimmer to compete for the U.S. in the Olympics in 68 years. His preparation for the 2000...
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...Executive Summary The Gold Coast is indisputably Australia's most popular holiday destination and offers many different types of beachfront accommodation, award-winning dining, shopping and thrilling attractions. This marketing report aimed to devise a marketing strategy for this location. It began by scanning the macro environment and found that the location is politically stable, although currently the entire world is being severely affected by the economic recession. This has therefore meant that non-essential spending is down, which will have a negative economic impact. Conversely, new technologies such as efficient aircraft are allowing for more visitors to the region. A current concern is that of global warming, being a beach front city, this will affect the climate and cause beach erosion. The Gold Coast and Queensland are famous for the Sun and Surf as well as a very active party and bar scene, and some world famous events. The existing marketing plan has made good use of these factors, although the report has shown that it may be further refined. A brand-new aspect of the Gold Coast promotion has been introduced in the form of a new logo which consists of a rainbow theme. It has been designed to appeal to several markets such as self discoverers, active explorers, and stylish travellers, un-winders, social fun-seekers and connectors which are further outlined in the target market section. In order to promote the destination effectively, this report...
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...Plan Part I: Conceptualizing a New Product or Service Division of an Existing Business This paper will explain the strategic plan for Newmont Mining Corporation’s newest venture, while defining the vision, mission, and goals of this Corporation and how it will interlink. It will state the company’s values and will offer strategic direction while considering the culture, social responsibility, and ethics. It will show how the mission statement along with the vision and values will help the company to achieve success in its new venture of promoting gold in a new format, and how it will guide the strategic direction of the company. It will address the needs of the public and global economies and how the company will offer a competitive advantage over all other companies in this industry. Company History Newmont Mining Corporation is an exploration, refining, and marketing company of gold and copper. They operate in the US, Australia, Peru, Indonesia, Ghana, New Zealand, and Mexico. As of December 31, 2013 , Newmont employed 15,085 people with its headquarters in Denver, Colorado. For the year ended in December 2013, they recorded revenues of $8,322 million. They are considered to be one of the largest producers of gold in the world (“Newmont”, 2014). Vision They consider their mission, vision , and values are what has helped to successfully grow their business. Their Vision is to be the most valued and respected mining company through industry leading performance...
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...Week 1 Review Questions Chapter 1 |3. |How do you think the principle of uniformitarianism accounts for occasional catastrophic events such as meteorite impacts, huge | | |volcanic eruptions, or great earthquakes? | | | | | |A Scottish geologists named James Hutton gave geology the name uniformitarianism. Uniformitarianism is the study of rock formations | | |structure, and the distinctive patterns. Sand dunes near Yuma Arizona contains sand grains that are deposited by wind grains. The | | |earth has tectonic plates that can move, this movement is called Tectonic activity. When the plates shift, the movement can cause | | |volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. The earth has received two kinds of crust due to tectonic activities, the thick granitic | | |continental crust, and the thin basaltic oceanic crust. The theory that the earth is not one solid shell of rock sitting on a magma | | |core is called the lithosphere theory. The shifting plate theory seems to help explain the formations of mountains, volcanoes | | |eruption, and the occurrence of earthquakes. The earth contains several plates that float around on the softer upper mantle of the | | |earth. Scientist can study the...
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...Technology 1 Abstract: Recent calls in Australia have addressed the need for better integration of planning processes. The consequent effort made by the government has been, and still is, reshaping the way urban and regional planning and sustainability are managed. Focusing on planning practices at the local and regional levels, we investigate how environmental sustainability is pursued from an institutional perspective. Specifically, we analyse the way that planning in Australian cities aims to achieve sustainable strategies and reflect on the relationship with ‘Strategic Environmental Assessment’. This paper has four goals. First, sustainable planning practices at the local and regional levels are analysed considering the legislative and organizational frameworks of each state. The goal is to identify, through an analysis of planning documents, how much discretion is given to local councils to address sustainable strategies. Second, we focus on two regions and four cities in Queensland, to outline strengths and weaknesses of current legislative and practical frameworks. We use analytical criteria from the SEA literature to investigate these plans in more detail. Third, we examine the relationship between strategic and statutory plans, to see how sustainability is actually implemented. Finally, we compare how the emerging issues are affecting sustainable planning in Australia and in countries with different planning and SEA tradition. Considering how SEA is globally evolving and...
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...authority and responsibility. According to author of this paper, Hybrid style of management is the best solution for management tensions in the company for it gives the best of both worlds for since allows management to centralize some important functionalities and activities of the company while enjoying flexibility of decentralization of authority and responsibility. 2. Industry background The history of the Australian Wine Industry originates back to 1788 when Captain Arthur Philip a leader of European settlers introduced it into Australia (Bartlett, Ghoshal & Beamish, 2008, p.666). According to the case study, Australian is originally a beer drinking country, and in 1969 the industry experienced a slow down whereby annual per capita wine consumption was at 8.2 liters as compared to 100 liters per person per annum in France and Italy. The Australian Wine Industry also underwent through transformation and the following changes happen; first, table wine varieties replaced the fortified wines which experienced decrease in demand (Bartlett, Ghoshal & Beamish, 2008, p.666). Second, Bottled varietals like sauvignon and Chardonnay replaced the bulky ‘bag in box’ two litter wine (Bartlett, Ghoshal & Beamish, 2008, p.666). Third, there was an increase in the number of wineries. According to the case study, “more than 1,000...
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...CASE REPORT: Global Wine Wars: New World Challenges Old (Harvard Business School Case # 9-303-056) NMI 1. How did the French become the dominant competitors in the increasingly global wine industry for centuries? What sources of competitive advantage were they able to develop to support their exports? Where were they vulnerable? French wine makers also face challenges that are not internal to the industry. For instance, France lost market share in the United States due to informal boycotts in the wake of the Iraq war. The rise of the euro against other currencies, such as the 30% increase relative to the dollar in the last few years, has put French wines at a comparative cost disadvantage. But consensus among experts is that the primary threat to the French export market is internal to the industry: the inability of the appellation system to appeal to what is becoming a global way of understanding wines (Business Report, 2004). France is the largest overall producer of wine, at 5.3 billion liters of wine in 2001, 20% of world production. France has traditionally set the standard for quality wine as well as defining these standards. French viticulture laws mandates four levels of quality as 1) Appellation d’Origine Contrôlee (AOC) 2) vins délimite qualité supérieure (VDQS) 3) vins du pays and 4) vins du table. French wine makers also face challenges that are not internal to the industry. For instance, France lost market share in the United States due to informal boycotts...
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...manufacturer of watches, launched the Tanishq range of gold watches and jewellery. Till then, the Indian jewellery market was to a large extent unorganized, with a few recognized names such as Tribhovandas Bhimji Jhaveri and Mehrason's. Tanishq, an entirely new concept in the Indian market, thus had to struggle hard to be accepted by the customers. Industry watchers were extremely skeptical of Tanishq and doubts were being cast over its prospects. Tanishq began by offering jewellery in the 18-carat gold range, with designs borrowed heavily from contemporary European brands. The company justified its decision saying that it wanted to be 'different' from the traditional Indian offerings. Tanishq performed very badly in the next three years, posting a huge loss in 1997-98, proving its detractors right. Jacob Kurian, Tanishq's chief operating officer admitted, "Tanishq, as a concept, was far too ahead of its times." Even if one agreed with Kurian, it could not be denied that Tanishq did commit mistakes. Analysts decreed that the company's strategies were wary. At this point, Tanishq took various steps to correct the mistakes it had committed and very soon, posted its first ever operating profit in 1999. In 1999-00, sales doubled to Rs 1532 million against Rs 743.8 million recorded in 1998-99 and reached Rs 2000 million in 2000-01. Tanishq fared equally well on the export front also with heavy exports to UK, US, Australia and West Asia. Tanishq was the largest overseas chain...
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